Friday, May 27, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Session 28 – Part 2: Sweeping the Barrow

This is the second part of the session that happened Saturday, May 21, 2011.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training. I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure. Plus, Dyson writes interesting things - read his blog.

Morning, April 22, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, we see the world anew in His light.

I fell asleep while writing last night. Luckily, one of the Red Shirts woke me up in time for my morning prayers. I will continue where I left off while the rest of our group makes their morning ablutions.

It took us nearly two hours to make it back to the top of the spiral ramp, where Wednesday disarmed the belled tripwire. Based on the knowledge that there was no way any drow down in the city could have heard those bells if we tripped them, we realized there was a drow patrol in the barrow.

We started our search in the prison area followed by the barracks. The prison was empty, but the cell we found Ferahal in and left open was closed now. Making our way to the barracks, the doors to the three sleeping rooms were closed again. Wednesday checked all three and discovered the poisoned javelin traps had been reset for all three doors. She disabled two of them, but got a bit over confident on the third and accidentally set it off. Luckily she evaded it. The rooms were empty but obviously reoccupied. We continued following the five-foot tunnels, looking for the patrol.

Next along was the crypt cavern. Frankie discovered this chamber was protected by a lightning bolt trap (the hard way) and Wednesday confirmed it had been reset as well. She disabled the trap and we entered the crypts, a new area for us. Wednesday did a thorough search of the entire cavern before pronouncing it clear of traps and letting the rest of us in. The stone coffins had small plaques announcing who was inside. The script was in elven, but the names were all drow (according to the elves with us – I couldn't tell the difference). The dates were at or after the event that started the hostilities between the drow and the surface elves. [The players took to calling it 'The Scuffle" for lack of a DM-supplied term.]

I am not one to desecrate tombs, but I have no problem dealing with undead if the occupants have turned, so we started rapping on the stone coffins with Frankie's glaive. This produced no response at all and I was ready to leave, but Frankie pointed out there may be historical artifacts in the older coffins. Reluctantly I agreed to opening the coffins, but stipulated that nothing was to be disturbed nor the bodies desecrated. I will admit to some curiosity as to the contents.

The first coffin contained the desiccated corpse of a drow, covered in some sort of feathered robes or cloak. There was nothing of obvious historical worth and I did not let my companions search the body. The second coffin was a different matter.

As Frankie opened the second oldest coffin, the creature inside attacked him. The creature is known as a mohrg, a form of undead that still retained its viscera and an obscenely long and prehensile tongue. As we moved to put down the mohrg, two more pushed their way out of their coffins and attacked us. Luna discovered their tongues are paralytic when it (the tongue) grabbed her and she could no longer move. Then the first one paralyzed Frankie, putting a desperate edge to the fight.

I put to use an ability Ra had granted me, but I had not needed until now. I released a nimbus of light, becoming as bright as the holy sun itself. In addition to fully lighting the chamber, the holy sunlight started burning the undead mohrgs. Then I was paralyzed by one of the mohrgs and could no longer actively participate in the combat. But I could still channel positive energy in a wave centered on my Eye of Ra, which I did, blasting the last of the mohrgs back to the darkness after my still active companions dispatched the other two.

The paralysis wore off after a few minutes and we beat a hasty retreat from the barrow, no longer looking for the drow patrol. We were exhausted and sore and tired. We cautiously made our way back to the camp and much needed rest.

Clearly we need ways to see in total darkness if we are to go anywhere near the drow city. We have not located the gate we are looking for and I fear it is in the city. We will return to Ttaeladra and see what we can do to solve that problem. Tre-ba, Luna, and I can discuss methods to overcome this problem along the way.

*End of Session*

[The session actually went another hour or so after this point, but it was a quick, unopposed trip back to Ttaeladra, leveling up our characters, and then discussions on what magic items we needed to buy/create. Our funds prohibited the purchase of darkvision goggles, so Tre-ba crafted two wands of darkvision at 8th-level effect while Harkaitz forged two rings of sustenance. The rings are more for the reduced sleep requirements so we can stand watches in the barrow than the lack of needing to eat or drink, but if we get trapped down there, those powers will help greatly.

The party leveled as a result of all the action at the gatehouse and the defeated traps in the barrow. Frankie Hu took leadership, selecting a half-elf witch named Midnight. I had Aziz also take leadership, selecting a female Ifrit oracle named Sarisvati the Suntouched, keeping in theme with a Ra-based divine character. We wanted to see how these classes worked without switching characters and this was a good way to do so. Plus, it is very old school.]

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I'm using this blog to chronicle the campaigns I am either running or playing in and occasionally posting things I'm writing. I started writing a sci-fi novel and journaled that effort. Two drafts are complete, but I'm stalled for a moment, so I'm writing other things for a while until I find my muse for that again.

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